


I'll Stay Here With You Until This Dream is Gone

by doctornineandthreequarters



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Gen, Heavy Angst, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, The Framework Universe (Marvel), Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24589078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctornineandthreequarters/pseuds/doctornineandthreequarters
Summary: When Tony finally woke up in the Framework, he remembered everything. It was like being hit by a tidal wave. The Avengers, Ultron, all of his plans to protect people with this virtual reality. Of course Ultron had outsmarted them and trapped them in the Framework with no memories. But Natasha had figured it out and woke everyone up in the Framework.But when it was time to leave, to return to the real world, Tony couldn’t.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Phil Coulson & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers Team
Comments: 19
Kudos: 78





	I'll Stay Here With You Until This Dream is Gone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zyruuu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zyruuu/gifts), [addi_writes_sometimes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/addi_writes_sometimes/gifts).



> Just a little background: This is based on a plot point from Agents of SHIELD. In the show, something called the Framework is created. The Framework is a virtual reality simulation where everyone's greatest regret is removed.
> 
> Also, this is Dee and Addi's fault.

When Tony finally woke up in the Framework, he remembered everything. It was like being hit by a tidal wave. The Avengers, Ultron, all of his plans to protect people with this virtual reality. Of course Ultron had outsmarted them and trapped them in the Framework with no memories. But Natasha had figured it out and woke everyone up in the Framework. 

But when it was time to leave, to return to the real world, Tony couldn’t.

He remembered the pained expression on Steve’s face when Tony had pushed him into the exit point, not following after him. He remembered Steve shouting his name, but Tony had just turned away. 

He deserved to stay there. He needed to stay there. 

“Dad!” Tony looked up as he entered the base, a sad smile on his face. How could he leave the Framework when everything he needed was right there? Brown curly hair, adorable Bambi eyes.

His perfect son.

Tony leaned down and hugged the boy tightly. Peter wrapped his arms around his stomach, burrowing his face in Tony’s shirt.

“Did you stop the bad guys?” Peter asked, looking up at him. Tony smiled and nodded. “I knew you would. Can we go home now?”

“Yeah, Bambino, we can.” He straightened up and Peter ran off to get his stuff. As Tony watched him, he felt a familiar presence approach him. He glanced to the side, seeing the familiar face of Phil Coulson. 

“Didn’t think you’d be coming back,” Coulson noted. “Agent Barton made it clear that you all had somewhere to be.” Tony glanced back at Peter, who was pulling his backpack onto his back, and sighed. 

“There’s nowhere else in the world I would be.” And as Peter came running back over to them, Coulson just nodded before walking away. Tony sighed, before smiling at his son. 

“Let’s go home.”

* * *

As soon as they got back to the house, things felt off. Peter had complained that the robot he had been building was missing and no amount of searching could find it. The boy simply huffed, deciding on searching the kitchen for a snack. 

Tony sat in the living room, a sinking feeling in his gut. Staying had been a bold choice, but knowing Peter, his son, was there, that made it okay. That made up for everything because Tony had Peter. He was getting to be a dad. Nothing could take away from that. 

“Dad!” Tony was up in a second, running into the kitchen. He was ready to defend Peter from whatever goon of Ultron’s had shown up. 

Instead, he found his best friend standing in the kitchen, staring wide-eyed at his son. 

“You can’t take me or my dad!” Peter shouted, a fearful look in his eye. Tony watched Rhodey look back and forth between Peter and him, realization dawning on his face. 

“He’s not a bad guy.” Tony assured, gently placing his hand on his son’s shoulder. “He’s one of the good guys.” Peter looked up at his dad skeptically. “I promise, Bambino.” Tony ruffled his hair and Peter couldn’t help but smile. “Go to the living room, okay? I’ll be there in a second.” Peter nodded, skipping off.

“Tony.” Rhodey’s voice sounded broken as he spoke. “Is that...how?”

“The Framework was designed to change your biggest regret.” Tony looked down, not daring to meet his best friend’s eye as he spoke. They didn’t talk about this for a reason. 

Tony had buried those words when he had buried his infant son.

“Tony, we have to go.” Tony’s head snapped up. He shook his head as a sad expression crossed his face. “The Framework...Ultron shut down the Framework. If we don’t get out of here…”

“Then go.”

“Tony.”

“I can’t leave him!” Tony felt tears burning at his eyelids. “I can’t let him down...not again.” Tony felt his chest tighten and he tried to will the tears away.

“Tony,” Rhodey began, stepping closer to him. “What happened to him and Mary was not your fault. I told you that that day in the hospital and I will tell you again now. It was not your fault.”

“I didn’t protect them! I could’ve…” Tony felt his breaths coming shorter. There was a reason he didn’t talk about this. He gasped for air, the familiar sense of a panic attack clawing its way up. “I lost Peter once. I won’t do it again. He’s here now. I get to be a father. I can’t leave. I know he’s not...I know what this is, Rhodey. But I can’t leave him.”

“So you’d rather stay here, in a simulation that is shutting down, than come back?”

“What do I have out there?”

“ _ Me _ .” Rhodey emphasized. “And Pepper and Happy and the team.”

“Oh, screw the team,” Tony spat out, stepping away. “They blame me for Ultron. For this.” He waved his hand in the air, gesturing to the Framework. “They hate me.”

“Then why did they let me come rescue your stubborn ass?” Tony huffed and shook his head. “Tony, please.”

“I’ve made up my mind, Rhodey.” Rhodey was about to say something when there was a shout from the living room. Tony ran into the room, his need to protect Peter still very much present, even though his memories from both in and out of the Framework were battling in his mind. 

“It’s gone!” Peter ran over to them and Tony pulled his son close to him. “The...the television! It just vanished!” Tony squeezed his eyes shut and hugged Peter tightly. So Rhodey was right. But that didn’t change anything for him.

“We have to go,” Rhodey reiterated, a sense of urgency in his voice. “Tony, please. Before it all...before you...” Tony just shook his head and hugged Peter tighter. 

“Dad?” Peter’s voice sounded small. He was hit with a memory, one that he knew now wasn’t real, of Peter, much smaller than he was now, asking Tony to stay with him as it stormed outside. God, how Tony wished it was real. How he wished he had those memories for real and not just from some simulation. 

But Peter was right there in front of him. He could look into those perfect brown eyes and he could hug his son. It didn’t matter that this wasn’t real. Peter was real to him. 

“Dad, what’s happening?” 

“Nothing, Bambino.” Tony promised, trying not to cry. He knew he failed as Peter brushed a tear off his cheek. “Everything’s going to be okay.” But Peter let out a shout when the coffee table disappeared right before their eyes. 

“Tony, we have to go!” Rhodey yelled, now desperate. “Before it’s all gone. Before the simulation shuts down. We have to go!”

“Why do things keep disappearing?” Peter asked, fear in his voice. Tony just stared at his son, a tightening in his chest. “What’s happening? Am I going to die?”

“No, Bambino.” Tony wasn’t trying to hide the tears falling down his cheeks. He wasn’t in the Framework anymore. He wasn’t staring at this version of Peter. He was remembering a baby, coming too early into the world, no sound and barely breathing. He was remembering holding this lifeless infant, begging whatever power there was out there to just give him his son back. To just let him be a father.

The universe was taking that away from him again. And again, there was nothing Tony could do.

“I don’t want to die!” Peter cried. Tony just hugged Peter tightly, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. 

“You’re not going to die.” Tony promised, squeezing his eyes shut as the tears poured down his face. “I’m not going to leave you. I will always protect you. I love you, Peter.” He hugged Peter as tight as he could, but something felt wrong. Tony slowly opened his eyes, seeing a broken look on Rhodey’s face. And then he looked down at his arms. 

There was nothing there. Peter was gone.

A strangled cry left Tony’s throat as more tears fell. He felt Rhodey pull him into a hug, but Tony screamed and thrashed against his best friend, trying to get away. 

“No!” Tony screamed. “No! Peter!” He dropped to the floor, the sobs wracking through his entire body. He felt Rhodey hugging him, trying to say something to comfort him. “Give him back! Give me my son back!” Tony screamed and screamed, his throat growing raw. All he wanted was his son back. All he wanted was his perfect kid and these perfect memories of getting to raise him. So Tony screamed, hoping the universe would hear him and take pity on him.

But it was no use. 

Peter was gone. He had lost his son again.

* * *

When he woke up to the real world, to Rhodey calling his name, to the team running into battle, Tony just felt numb. When they defeated Ultron, Tony didn’t celebrate. How could he? What did he have to celebrate?

He didn’t sleep. His dreams were plagued with memories from the Framework. Science experiments with Peter. Building robots in the kitchen. Movie nights where they laughed until tears poured down their faces. Lazy Sundays where they sat on the couch and read together. 

A perfect life, gone in a blink.

A week after Tony woke up from the Framework, he found himself in a cemetery. He hadn’t been there in years. It had been too painful. But now, everything ached. 

And he needed to say goodbye. 

Tony knelt down in front of the grave, tracing the letters delicately, tears already threatening to fall. He remembered the funeral. It had been a sunny day, the kind of day his son deserved to enjoy. But instead, they had buried him before he even really got to live. Minutes, that was all Tony had gotten originally. 

“I love you, Bambino.” Tony whispered, staring at the words. “I love you and I’m sorry I wasn’t enough. I’m sorry I didn’t keep you safe. I’m sorry I lost you twice.” He could still hear Peter crying, begging to live. He could still feel his son’s arms wrapped around him. “I’m sorry we didn’t get more time. I wish we had.” 

Tony bowed his head, his fingers dropping from the gravestone, as the tears fell. He wished he could pull his heart out and stop feeling. He wished he didn’t have to go through this again. He wished he wasn’t alone. 

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. 

“You think I’d let you do this alone?” Tony let out a sob as Rhodey pulled him up into a hug. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to go through this again. I’m sorry I had to rush you out and I scared him. I’m sorry, Tones.”

“It’s so much worse this time,” Tony admitted, pulling away. “Because even though it wasn’t real, it was here.” He let his hand fall over his heart. “Because I got to be a dad, even if just for a second. And losing him, when I had all those happy moments running around in my brain...it hurt so much worse.”

Tony looked back at the gravestone.  _ Peter Stark _ . A boy who didn’t live, but who did. A boy who died young, but who laughed with him in the kitchen while making pancakes. It hurt his brain to try and separate the real memories from the Framework. And it hurt his heart to know none of it mattered, now that Peter was gone. He looked back at Rhodey, who just pulled him into a hug. 

“Take a moment,” Rhodey suggested. “Then meet me in the car. Happy got you cheeseburgers.” Tony let out a breath that sounded like a laugh. Rhodey let go and then walked towards the car, where Happy was waiting. Tony glanced back at the gravestone, letting out a long, pained breath. 

“Rest now, Bambino.” He whispered, to the gravestone and to the universe. “I don’t know when I’ll see you again, but I know someday I will. I love you, Peter. And I always will.”

Then, with one last look, Tony turned and walked away, his dreams of a perfect life with his perfect son going up in smoke.

**Author's Note:**

> Dee said "Mack and Hope, but make it Irondad" and Addi said "WRITE IT". Well, here's the PAIN you ordered.
> 
> [Scream with me on my tumblr?](https://doctornineandthreequarters.tumblr.com)


End file.
